Wednesday's Child - Nancy May Bronsavage

The Plain Speaker, 28SEP1944, pg 20

This clipping is another of those that I had the choice of it being too small to read or ridiculously large but legible. I chose the latter.

Newspapers.com sent me an automated email one day letting me know that there were some new additions to their collections that included some of my saved searches (I love that!) so when I got to the "Bronsavage" link this was one of the articles I saw and I was surprised and grieved.

"Girl At W.H. Killed By Car

Nancy May, five-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs Michael Bronsavage, of 107 East Cranberry avenue, West Hazleton, was fatally injured at 6:15 last evening by an automobile operated by Albert Miller, of 207 East Broad street, West Hazleton.

She was taken to the State Hospital by Miller and Raymond Schneider, driver for the West Hazleton Fire Company, at 6:22 and succumbed three minutes later from a fractured skull.

According to Chief of Police Carl O. Meiss of West Hazleton, Miller, who is constable of the First Ward in that borough, delivered a prisoner to the West Hazleton lockup.

Coming out of the building he drove around it to Clay avenue where the accident occurred near the girl's home.

According to Miller he did not see the girl but when he noticed another girl standing nearby with a frightened expression he stopped his car and found the injured child in the street.  The West Hazleton authorities are checking today to ascertain whether she was hit crossing the street or ran into the side of the car. No dents were found on the auto.

Chief Meiss was assisted in the investigation by Lieutenant Edward Waitkus and Patrolman Andrew Scheagan.

Miller appeared before Justice of the Peace John Nensteil, of West Hazleton and furnished bail in the amount of $2500 on a charge of involuntary manslaughter by automobile.

Deputy Coroner John J. Salvator, Jr., was called and after investigating, issued a certificate of death cause by automobile accident.

The child is survived by the parents.

The child's mother is the former Helen Krupko (sic), of Coxeville.

The funeral will be held Saturday at 9 a.m., from the family home. Mass of the Angels will be held in Ss. Peter and Paul's Lithuanian Church at 9:30 a.m.

Interment will be made in the parish cemetery."

I knew Nancy May Bronsavage existed. I may have even been told that she died young, but when people tell me things in passing with no proof I tend to let them go in one ear and out the other. Not to be rude, but because there are so many things going on in my mind regarding genealogy that as Sherlock said "I have to delete something."

Now that I've seen the article in black and white I'll most likely never forget it again. Seeing it is different than hearing that they had a daughter that died young. The details make it real. Having children myself makes it even more real. Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare and you feel it even when the loss you read about is someone else's.

According to Michael's obituary Nancy May was the only child Michael and Helen Bronsavage nee Krupka ever had which makes this even more tragic.

I hadn't been able to find Michael, Helen, and Nancy Bronsavage in the 1940 census previously, but this article told me that they lived in ward 1 of West Hazleton. That narrowed it down to 34 pages to scan through on Ancestry.com and I found them quickly. Their surname was transcribed as "Bronavage".  Only the "s" was missing so I would have expected the Ancestry search engine to have picked that up, but it didn't. Living with them was Michael's brother, Anthony Jr., and his surname was transcribed "Bonarrigo". I submitted correction for all of them and linked the record to my family tree.

Nancy May Bronsavage was born on May 21st 1939 and died on September 27th 1944. She was buried in Saints Peter and Paul Lithuanian Roman Catholic Cemetery on September 30th 1944 and has a memorial on FindAGrave. She is my first cousin once removed. Rest in peace sweet, little girl.